Fighting For Home
by Staurolite
Summary: Kiara didn't know how to say goodbye, which is why she was leaving without warning. She sighed softly, knowing that what she was about to do was much bigger and more important than just her family. If there ever was a time to stand up for what she believed in, that time would be now. With that thought in mind, Kiara walked out the door and changed the world.
1. Chapter 1

Kiara stood at the top of the stairs, taking one last look at the house she would be leaving forever. Currently, she was the only one home but her single mother had just left work and would be getting back soon. Her brother was at a friends house.

Kiara didn't know how to say goodbye, which is why she was leaving without warning. She wouldn't be able to look her family in the eyes as she left, so she planned not to. Picking up a stuffed backpack and walking down the familiar stairs, she stopped at the door leading to her new life. Sighing softly, she knew that what she was about to do was much bigger than just her family.

Steeling herself with that thought in mind, Kiara walked out the door and changed the world.

Kiara's raven hair was lifted with the slight breeze. Her analytical green eyes scanned over Agent Coulson as he opened the car door for her wordlessly. She slid into the black Mercedes and leaned her head back, gently massaging her temples. This whole ordeal was giving her a killer headache. She should be worrying her essay on the physical impacts of radiation exposure due tomorrow, not the Tesseract and Earth's uncertain doom.

Coulson, sensing Kiara's aversion to talk at this time, kept quiet and drove her to the Helicarrier. Kiara spent this time reminiscing about her normal life, before SHIELD discovered her powers. They only found out because she lost her cool for a few seconds and accidentally shut down the city's power. Some jerk stole her car and she overloaded the power grid. Oops.

Arriving at the Helicarrier before the 'big-guy Avengers' she had time to settle into her new room. With light grey walls, the room was spacious compared to her room at home. There were two doors, that were identical, which led to the bathroom and closet. The room only had a bed and a desk with a chair. Kiara felt relieved that she had the foresight to bring her laptop, even though it took up a large amount of space in the one bag she took with her. The closet seemed too big for Kiara; she didn't bring nearly enough clothes to fill it. The bathroom was just as bare as the bedroom. It held the bare essentials: a sink, a shower, a toilet, and a shelf with one towel resting on it. She placed her plastic bag of toiletries on the shelf and looked at herself in the mirror.

Kiara's long dark hair had tangled on the way to the Helicarrier, but that wasn't a surprise. She had hair that would magically tangle within ten minutes of brushing it. Her skin was paler than most and had an almost unhealthy tiny to it. Spending time outside made no difference; it just stayed pale. Her emerald eyes reflected back the dim lighting, glowing like an animal's eyes. Kiara usually tried to hide this shocking feature with tinted contacts and sunglasses.

At the moment, guilt dulled the color of her eyes. How could she leave her family so defenseless? They didn't live in the best neighborhood and wouldn't be able to recover if they were robbed. It helped that Fury promised to provide for them while Kiara was gone. Until she could make it home, if she ever did, she had to stay tough. Lucky for her, Fury also promised to reimburse her college fund as she was guaranteed to miss all of her classes due to her new 'duty'.

Quickly running her fingers through her hair, Kiara left her room and met Agent Coulson at the door.

"Here's a map. I'll have someone show you around later; right now I have to go pick up Captain Rogers." He handed her the map and practically ran down one of the many confusing hallways. She wasn't at all annoyed; the excited glint in his eyes revealed his need to see his lifelong hero.

Chuckling and clutching the map in her hands, Kiara tried to find her way to the labs through the maze of the Helicarrier.


	2. Chapter 2

Kiara eventually found the lab with the help of random agents passing by. Entering the room, she giggled like a young schoolgirl. She may have been failing her English courses at college, but anything to do with technology and building/engineering were her specialty. Admittedly, she only knew what half of the machines did. She hadn't seen most of it in person, anyways. Her college couldn't afford many technologies so her knowledge was mainly based on pictures and videos.

Looking through the folders on one of the cleaner tables, Kiara tried to calm her racing heart. She was told that would be on the Helicarrier, in this lab, working to find the Tesseract. She hoped she could be of some assistance in the lab, not just on the battlefield.

While she was aimlessly walking around, admiring the equipment, Fury watched her through a camera. He didn't know much about the girl, only that she was powerful. He didn't even know her full potential or if she was aware of all of her powers. That's why he was going to put her through vigorous training with each of the Avengers while on the Helicarrier. To be successful and useful, she couldn't be running on half power. The surveillance on her would be strict and careful for the rest of her life. Great power can bring greatness, but it is also a force of corruption.

Not known to Fury, Kiara knew they were watching her. Her gift with electricity and technology was her true gift. She could feel the camera, just like she could feel the other machines in the room. Anything running on any sort of power was for her to control, but she rarely tried to use more than electricity.

She always wondered if she could control humans, but the thought was too terrifying.

Her gift was also a curse. Technology would consume her attention whenever she was around it. If someone was walking by with a new phone, it would consume her attention until she memorized its mechanics. While she was 'aimlessly' walking, she was scanning and analyzing everything in the room. Doing this helped her learn what some of the machines did, but some would stay a mystery until someone explained it to her.

With a jolt, she felt the Helicarrier lifting into the air. A few scraps of metal fell onto the floor, but Kiara didn't bother with picking them up. All of the computers turned on as soon as they started to lift, the screens illuminated with complex equations and long strings of numbers. The other Avengers must be on board.

The muffled sounds of a woman's voice filtered through the glass doors of the lab.

"Here you go, Dr. Banner; all the toys you'd ever want to play with."

Kiara felt her heart jump up to her throat. Not knowing whether to be afraid or excited, she decided to shuffle over to the corner of the room and make herself look busy with a basic laptop. She was genuinely researching through SHIELD's database for information on the tesseract, but with the fear and excitement of one of her scientific heroes about to enter the room, nothing was being absorbed into her brain.

Banner entered the room alone, Natasha voting to return to Fury for additional briefing. Looking exhausted and overwhelmed, he didn't notice Kiara in the corner, glancing at him from a distance. She was too much in awe to do anything other than stare at him, unable to continue her act of studying. Kiara snapped her mouth shut after noticing it was open, the sound alerting Banner of her presence.

"Hello."


	3. Chapter 3

"Who is that girl in lab with Banner?" Natasha asked Fury, bothered that someone new was added to the team without her being informed beforehand. Especially since such a last minute decision meant the girl was special, and dangerous. They both looked down on a portable screen Fury held that showed the pair in question working on a set of computers. "Is it wise to leave her in there with him?" She looked at him inquisitively, quirking her brow when he failed to look her in the eye.

Fury remained stoic throughout her minor questioning, but Natasha had known him long enough to recognize even the slightest of changes to read into his hidden emotions. A minor twitch of his eye combined with his pause in responding revealed his own concern over the girl in question, which only served to confuse Natasha.

"She's too powerful to go to waste; and with a vengeful God on our hands, we need all the help we can get."

"She's that strong?"

A curt nod is the only response she got to that question.

"I can't trust her on her own. That's why you are becoming her new mentor."

A surge of irritation filled Natasha's body. Although she would never disobey an order, as this surely was, too much was going on right now to add mentoring a completely untrained agent. She had to focus on getting Barton back with his family, not babysitting. Plus, she would probably end up being the person who kept the group somewhat together as she was one of the most normal and socially capable of the group, regardless of how much she didn't want to be. Deciding instead to excuse herself from the conversation rather than risk saying anything harsh to Fury, she walked over to Steve Rogers, who stood looking out the window in incredulous wonder.

In the lab, Banner and Kiara were getting along very well. Sure, they were only talking about ways to optimize the search for Loki and the tesseract, but he didn't seem uncomfortable with her presence. In contrast, she was entirely uncomfortable, but hiding it well. After all, she almost passed out when they shook hands because she got to touch _the_ Bruce Banner.

"So, what are you in for?" Banner asked after a lull in the conversation. He leaned against the table, facing Kiara. She looked unbothered by their closeness, as she stood right next to him, remotely calibrating certain mass spectrometers in China. She was too comfortable, especially if he new about his little big green problem. "I'm assuming you know about me and my 'condition'."

Kiara nodded and fumbled with the keyboard she tried to focus on, before giving up and facing him. She had purposefully avoided bringing that topic up because she thought he wouldn't want to talk about it. She took a deep breath as she looked him in the eyes. It's not fair that she should know about him if he doesn't know about her in return.

"I am also not entirely normal," Kiara stated, emphasizing the 'normal' with air quotations. Banner had to consciously stop himself from responding with a _not_ sarcastic answer of 'no shit Sherlock'. No one on this godforsaken Helicarrier was normal. Just as she was about to reveal her greatest secret to a man she just met, Fury walked in, looking his namesake.

"Agent Woods, do you have your powers under control enough for a mission?" Fury asked Kiara.

"Yes, sir."

"Good. Meet Agent Romanoff on the observation deck and she will give you a quick briefing. Good luck." As she passed by him, he gave her an earpiece which she immediately slipped in her ear. Banner watched her leave the room with obvious disappointment, which Fury seemed to have anticipated. After sliding the scientist Kiara's file, Fury returned to the main room to monitor the first official Avenger mission.


	4. Chapter 4

"Now repeat the rules back to me," Natasha ordered. Her stern glare revealed her irritation over having to go over this with a girl she considered a liability.

Kiara thumbed the sleeve of her unbelievably tight catsuit, a hand me down of Natasha's, before replying, "Don't leave the plane. Don't go haywire. Don't be a liability." This was the eighth time she had to repeat those words since she met the Black Widow. Any deviation from the original statement and she had to restart. She understood Natasha's caution, as Kiara was new and untrusted, but Kiara had some common sense. She wasn't experienced enough to be involved in the mission, just witness the real heroes in action.

Screams echoed through the air long before the plane reached its destination. Faint shouts in German filtered into Kiara's ears. She closed her eyes with a sigh, the true extent of Loki's destructive tendencies starting to hit her.

When they arrived at the art gallery, Kiara noticed that four of Loki were corralling the people into the courtyard and forcing them to kneel. One old man, who had probably seen too much of this kind of mistreatment in his lifetime, stood up against Loki. Although admirable and brave, his action would no doubt lead to his death. Steve, noticing this as well, didn't hesitate to jump out of the helicopter to defend the man. He was almost too late.

Bringing out the sass, Steve remarked, "You know, the last time I was in Germany and saw a man standing above everybody else, we ended up disagreeing."

"The soldier, the man out of time," Loki commented, getting up.

"I'm not the one who's out of time."

The plane finally got close enough for Kiara to have a detailed look at the scene unfolding in front of her. The ones who had been cornered by Loki finally had the chance to disperse and they quickly found areas to hide, far from the battle about to unfold.

Natasha released the gun from the bottom of the plane and said, "Loki, drop the weapon and stand down."

As she finished her warning, he shot a ball of blue energy that reminded Kiara of the pictures she had seen of the Tesseract at the plane. Natasha skillfully dodged the blast, much to Kiara's relief. When he showed no intention of 'standing down' Steve started his attacks. Kiara knew she could help but she knew breaking her one rule would result in complete social banishment from someone she would have to trust with her life. Plus, she didn't want to see Natasha angry.

Although the battle was magnificent and well matched, at least to Kiara's inexperienced eyes, there was no real risk of anyone other than Loki getting hurt due to the fact that the Captain had back up ready to go. Loki's scepter was proven to work against vehicles, but Natasha would be able to get a shot in, if it needed to be done.

Before either fighter could get seriously injured, ACDC's Shoot To Thrill started to play through unseen speakers and Kiara could sense, with her complex technology skills, an advanced mechanical exoskeleton arriving on the scene of the fight. Internally, she scoffed. This must be the infamous Tony Stark.

He shot at Loki, ending the fight. It was almost too easy and, for someone like Stark, it was an unnecessary ego booster. One could almost hear the smirk on his voice when he called out to the god.

"Make your move, Reindeer Games."

On the aircraft, nobody trusted Kiara enough to let her roam freely with an enemy on board, so she was strapped in a seat across from Loki. Every once and awhile, Tony would send her curious glances. Apparently, her file was not common reading for the Avengers even though she had read all of theirs. She couldn't care too much at the moment; her mind was easily occupied with the various new technologies within her immediate vicinity. The Iron Man suit was the easiest thing to understand on the helicopter. It's machinery and computing software were much more recognizable than the literal alien power within Loki's scepter. Whatever powered that was not natural and just trying to think it through gave Kiara a major migraine. It looked like magic, but felt like some far superior science that shouldn't reach earth for millennia.

As her mind was enwrapped with the alien enigma, an unexpected shudder resonated throughout the helicopter, the resulting adrenaline rush forcing Kiara's eyes wide open. A gush of wind directly in her face threw her head back and, for once, she was thankful for being buckled securely in place. As she fought against the wind, she heard shouting coming from Steve and Tony. If this wasn't an emergency situation, she would have said that she had called it. They were complete opposites while both being alpha males: a recipe for destruction. However, within a blink of the eye, both had jumped out of the plane while it was still dangerously high in the air. Idiots.

Irrationally, she felt some form of responsibility for her teammates, which led to her reacting in a way that was just as idiotic as the males' actions. She unbuckled her harness to release her from the relative safety of her seat on the plane and, ignoring Natasha's shouts of warning woven with violent threats, she jumped out of the still open door of the plane.


	5. Chapter 5

Approaching the ground at a dangerous speed, Kiara realized that she had no way of slowing down. She was falling too fast and panicking too much to get a deep breath in. Falling had never been her favorite sensation, especially since it tended to end with a splat! She clamped her eyes shut and begged to any outside power that her gift could somehow get her out of this. When she reopened her eyes, lighting bolts of energy were wrapped around her body and carefully carrying her to the ground. She was at once filled with the desire to figure out how that was scientifically possible, but figured that could wait till later.

Sounds of fighting filled her ears and she noticed Loki sitting on a rock, not making any move at escaping. She felt he didn't need protecting and focused her attention on the fighting. Using her newfound power of the levitational bolts for speed, she rushed to the fight while she got a sense at was going on. The Asgardian with his hammer, who must be Thor, was fighting Steve and Tony for some unknown reason.

They were all acting like boys, so she ended the battle the quickest way she knew how. The ground was slightly damp due to Thor's thunderstorm and electricity loves water. She sent out a large bolt of electricity to overload Tony's suit and shock Thor and Steve into a short state of temporary paralysis. She hoped Thor's affinity for thunder did not protect him from lightning. It didn't.

"You are acting like children. We are all fighting for the same cause and can't afford to waste energy and time fighting each other. Thor, just come with us to Headquarters and everything will be explained." She couldn't guess as to where her surge in bravery came from to address an actual God so informally, but she was a little out of it at the moment. She had just jumped out of a plane without a parachute and utilized her power more than she ever had at one given time.

Still dazed from Kiara's attack, they followed her without much complaint. Tony whined until she fixed his suit with a wave of her hand. Then he only looked at her in confusion and in shock; it was unusual for him to be silent but everyone secretly thanked Kiara for making him so, never mind if it was unintentional. Thor seemed amused by her presence, even though she had electrocuted him. Steve wouldn't even look at her. Apparently, the bolts that prevented her from falling to her death had burned dozens of holes throughout her borrowed catsuit. With all that was going on, she hadn't even noticed.

The group walked back to where Kiara had left Loki and Natasha was waiting for them with the slightly damaged plane. For Kiara, she had a glare, but for the others, she gave something similar to a mother's doting glance. Kiara felt cheated; if she hadn't left the plane, the whole forest would be leveled. However, Natasha didn't care. Kiara had broken the rules and was unqualified for action.

Arriving at the Helicarrier, watched Loki get marched down the halls. Just looking at him sent shivers of fear and anger down the doctor's back. He could tell that Loki's main weapons were with the mind and emotions, not the physical body. His old 'room' wouldn't be able to stop Loki's attacks.

In the main area, everyone involved with the Avengers Initiative around the not-so-round 'round table'. They were supposed to be watching Loki and Fury, but Kiara was more focused on her headache that had started the moment she set foot on the Helicarrier. She didn't need to look to see that Loki was a manipulative bastard. She only started to pay attention to her surroundings when Thor started speaking on the topic of the alien army that would attack the earth on Loki's behalf. If she was expected to potentially give her live in protection of humans from those creatures, she'd like to know what she'd be up against.

"He has an army called the Chitauri. They're not of Asgard or any world known. He means to lead them against your people. They will win him the earth in return, I suspect, for the Tesseract."

If they managed to win, more planets than earth would be destroyed.

The added stress of this fact only compounded her headache. At this point, it was interfering with her mental capacity to contribute meaningfully to the conversation. She couldn't join Banner's and Tony's nerd-fest if she wanted to. Fortunately, she didn't really need to pay attention to their conversation. She had read Selvig's notes with little difficulty; they were just like the many academic papers she'd had to read for school. Even when she was excused from all schoolwork, she still had homework, thanks to S.H.I.E.L.D.

When the pair of scientists left the room to work in the lab, Kiara followed blindly and subconsciously.


	6. Chapter 6

They didn't notice her in the lab with them until she started building. Sure, it would only use up her power more than it already had been, potentially worsening her migraine, but the action was relaxing for her. Kiara built things like characters do in Lego video games; all of the components swirled in the air as she commanded them where to go. Bruce and Tony watched her work with varying degrees of surprise and awe. When she finished her gamma-tester, Tony picked it up and said, "I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship."

Tony tossed the device to Bruce and he examined it with a practiced eye. It looked like a stereotypical flying saucer that would be expected to hold aliens, albeit very tiny aliens as the object was only about a foot in diameter. The entirety of the tester was covered in a black, reflective material, yet touching it left no visible fingerprints. Sensing the confusion that was present in the room, Kiara felt the need to explain her creation.

"It's a gamma-radiation tester. I'll send it up into the atmosphere and even the faintest trace of gamma-radiation will show up on the signal device." She paused, holding up a small remote controller with a screen. "We can calibrate it to search for certain types of radiation at specific concentrations-even the faint traces given by the Tesseract.

Tony released a low whistle. "Good job, little tyke."

Kiara had a very trying personal battle on whether to punch him. She may be the youngest on the team, if you counted Cap's time in the ice towards his age, but she was an adult with plenty of responsibility. Instead of starting a fight that could get her kicked out of the Avengers, she decided to play at Tony's game.

"Thanks, old man."

Bruce laughed as Tony spluttered in shock at having someone reply in such a way. Celebrating her small victory with juvenile excitement, Bruce and Kiara high-fived almost instinctively. After realizing what had happened, Kiara fought to keep the emotion off of her face but failed miserably.

Kiara blushed and was absolutely speechless, which of course Tony noticed and would probably tease her about for years. Her admiration for Bruce was something she intended to keep secret, especially from someone she had inadvertently joined an eternal battle of the wits with, but she couldn't help it. His work on gamma radiation and anti-electron collisions was what inspired her to attend college, and here he was, treating her like an equal.

"Well, let's get this sucker in the air," Kiara spoke quickly, trying to hide her slowly diminishing blush from the two people in the room with her. Tony wanted to savor the moment of her embarrassment, but they did need to get work done. However, she had drained herself more than she thought. A wave of exhaustion rolled over Kiara and she yawned. Today had been the most adventurous day in her life and she was used to hiding her power and limiting its impacts, not using it to fight heroes and prevent her death. It was also something she never thought she would do; she never wanted anyone to know about her mutation-even her family didn't know. She didn't want to think about her family, but she couldn't help herself. Were they worrying about her? Of course they were. She had only left a note stating that an old friend had called her out of town on short notice and she might be too busy to give a call, which was the most jackass thing she had ever wrote. However, Fury wouldn't let her take her phone on board and it was probably safer for them to know nothing about what was going on since it included life-threatening activities her family wouldn't approve of.

"I'm going to go to bed. You boys have fun. Can one of you send this in the air for me, please?" Her change of tone was expected by both Bruce and Tony; they were used to the stress and problems associated with working with S.H.I.E.L.D., but Kiara was new. They both could imagine the thoughts running through her head and felt a mixture of guilt and pity as only time could make this easier; neither of them could do anything to help her cope other than just be there for her.

"You can count on me," Bruce promised, smiling warmly.

"Us!" Tony interjected, causing Bruce to realize his little slip up. He almost blushed as much as Kiara had-another piece of information Tony could now tease with. Unknown to Bruce and Kiara, their semi-obvious crush on each other had inspired Tony's matchmaking side. "See you later, Ms…" Tony prompted.

"Kiara, it's Kiara," she replied with a small smirk. She hadn't noticed Bruce's blush as she was still focused on not blushing herself while fighting to stay awake. Her headache had lessened as she interacted with her gamma-tester. Now, since it was finished, the migraine had come back at full force. Her temples throbbed and small black dots swarmed across her vision. Hopefully, there would be ibuprofen in her room to help force the pain to fade as she slept.

"Goodnight Kiara," Bruce said.

For some reason, Bruce's words sent a warm wave down Kiara's spine. She couldn't tell if it was just because she admired him for his scientific work or if it was something more. Instead of pondering on it, she shook it off, waved goodnight to the men, then left, using her map to find her room again.


	7. Chapter 7

Arriving at her room, she noticed that it had been changed from the bare and blank room she had left. Other than the bare essentials, shelves and tables of wires, segments of metal, and small machine parts had been scattered throughout the room. Fury must have noticed her talent; he probably expected her to create something useful for him, such as weaponry, but she appreciated the supplies nonetheless.

Other than the new additions to her room, she ignored everything to go grab some Advil from the cabinet under the sink in the bathroom. She downed two pills without drinking anything and looked at herself in the mirror. Her eyes were brighter again; if the lights had been out in her room, they would be visibly glowing. She gripped the edge of the sink and truly examined them. They had never been this bright before-had anyone else noticed? She slightly touched her temples without looking away from her unusually illuminated eyes. Her headache had somewhat dulled to a throbbing soreness, but it was still worse than the pain in her muscles, which were sensitive and tender after what she had gone through. She was not used to exerting herself that much in a day and moving felt slightly painful. She stripped slowly, peeling off the damaged catsuit with care. Unless Fury managed to find a suit that could handle major electrical currents, she doubted she would get any more suits as she would ruin them the moment she used her abilities while wearing them. Maybe if Edna Mode from the Incredibles was real…

Stepping into the shower to relax her tense muscles, she pushed every thought out of her mind. It was her time for relaxation; thinking about anything going on her life at the moment would be too stressful. The hot water never seemed to run out, so she didn't mind staying under the soothing spray until she felt she would pass out from exhaustion.

Surprising to her, Kiara's room didn't have a clock or windows. Her only hint at the time would come in the morning when an agent would wake her for some preliminary training. Personally, she felt that there wasn't enough time to train with the Tesseract loose on the world, but it would be safer if she somewhat knew what she was doing when it came to the inevitable battle.

Outside of the asylum of the shower, the stresses of the day finally hit her. Fury knew about Kiara's powers and had recruited her for them. He was going to get her training, shaping her up to be part of the team as an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. She knew that there was a significantly low probability that he would let her return to her normal life after this, but she didn't know if she could entirely handle living the life of an agent. Given today's events, Kiara felt as if she might be able to manage this life, but was only day one and there had already been so many drawbacks: no contact with family, life-threatening activities, not enough time for proper sleep. However, she could never claim it was boring and she had the opportunity to talk with Bruce Banner.

Speaking of Bruce, he seemed to be using up more of her attention than she had anticipated. Even with only spending a few moments with him, she felt strange. Was this a crush? Unlike most of the others in school, she had never really crushed on someone so she had no way of confirming nor denying the question lurking in her mind.

After brushing her hair, again, Kiara dressed in some scrubs someone had left on her bed while she had been gone. As she stood to turn the lights off in her room, a shiny something on the floor by the door caught her eye; it hadn't been there before. On the top was a note.

"I know Fury's rules about the newbies not getting anything fun on the Helicarrier. To make up for your shitty day, here is a brand new prototype for a Stark Music Player-name still undecided. I maybe hacked onto your iTunes account to get the right music. Sorry not sorry.

"P.S. Nice music choices. -The Old Man"

Kiara couldn't fight the tears that blurred her vision as she read the note. Her day _was_ shitty, but this gift saved it. She shoved the earbuds into her ears and pressed play. As the notes began to play in her ear, she laid down on the bed and wiped the tears off of her face. Playing music at a low volume and with a slight smile on her face, she snuggled up in her new bed and fell into a deep slumber.

In the lab, Tony was grinning at Bruce with malicious glee. They were alone now so it was totally fine to talk about his little slip up when talking to Kiara and his reaction to being corrected.

"So, Dr. Banner, you're into younger girls?"

Bruce's resulting choke of surprise spurred a coughing fit that Tony only laughed at while rubbing his hands together like an evil villain that had finally achieved world domination.

"I mean, it's fine if you are. She is over 21, so it's not like it's illegal."

"I don't know what you are talking about," Bruce indignantly. He knew he was acting like a petulant child, which was probably a bad idea around the biggest child in the Avengers, but he couldn't help it. This type of emotion had been foreign to him ever since Betty. However, it was relieving to hear she was just as much of an adult as anyone else on the team, especially since she didn't look it.

Tony chuckled some more, but allowed the conversation to lapse into silence. He didn't want to be responsible for any death while on the Helicarrier resulting from teasing the Hulk. Instead, he messed with the remote control while Bruce examined the gamma-tester with a curious eye. To be honest, neither of them knew how to make the thing fly, but they didn't want to bother Kiara by bringing her back to the lab to show them.

"Is it true that you're coming up with a mp3 player in response to the iPod?" Bruce spoke out of nowhere. He only looked at the faux flying saucer while speaking and completely avoided eye contact with Tony.

"Yup, but mine is better-and it's not even finished yet. I've got one with me now. Why…?"

"Well, I was wondering… earlier when I was talking with Kiara, she said she had to leave hers at home and I think she would appreciate… well…" Bruce stopped talking due to the embarrassing blistering heat of his cheeks. He couldn't help liking her; she unconsciously managed to keep the other guy pacified. He let the burning of his cheeks die down before even considering looking up from the machinery in his hands. Hearing movement by the door, Bruce glanced up to see Tony handing what could only be the aforementioned music player to one of the lower level agents. The pair made eye-contact, a wave of sincere understanding and thankfulness passing through them. Before the emotion in the room grew too great, Tony shook the remote control for the gamma tester in the air and shouted, "Let's get a move on! Kiara will probably skin us if we don't get this in the air and mine's too pretty to be wasted."


	8. Chapter 8

Kiara woke up to a harsh pounding on her door. Instead of the soft music she had fallen asleep to, she could only hear a muffled voice that was shouting at her to get up. Due to the unreasonably angry tone, she concluded that Natasha was sent here to train her. Great. Getting dressed at a pace she had never before accomplished in her 24 years of life, she rushed out the door while still slipping on some tennis shoes. Natasha glared at Kiara as soon as she left her room.

"Follow me," Natasha ordered, without the slightest hint of respect, as if she were commanding a dog. Kiara didn't dare bring up the mission, but she sensed it would come up during training, probably through some form of physical punishment. Instead, she stayed completely silent as she followed Natasha to a fairly large training room.

"I will be showing you some basic moves."

Natasha started with the basic punches and kicks that quickly evolved into complex moves that involved difficult flips and jumps. Overall, they seemed too complicated to be for beginners or even to be called 'basic'. Kiara started to mimic the easier moves, but was completely new to any form of gymnastics so flips were not in her realm of possibility. She hadn't had a gym class in 6 years, and she wasn't even that fit when she had to exercise everyday for school. Regardless of Kiara's inexperience, Natasha wanted to get to actual sparring, mostly to illustrate to the newbie that she should always listen to her orders or be punished accordingly. After watching Kiara make a fool of herself trying to recreate Natasha's show of forces, the experienced agent made a strange hand gesture that Kiara took as being a signal to start. They both stood in opposite corners of a sparring mat.

"Ready?," asked Natasha, eyes glinting with excitement from the anticipation of a fight.

"As I'll ever be," replied Kiara, feeling overwhelmingly _not_ ready.

It took Natasha a solid 12 seconds to land the first hit, a number Kiara was unreasonably proud of, even as she suffered through the intense throbbing of her right ribs. However, once the pain fully became known to her brain, a switch was flipped. Her eyes lost all semblance of normality; the pupils disappeared, leaving the entire eyeball a glowing orb. Much to Natasha's annoyance, Kiara suddenly managed to fend off her attacks with what looked like ease. Within the hour, Natasha and Kiara were sparring like professionals. Steve, Tony, and Fury were watching them in awe. Steve and Tony had no issue showing their shock but Fury still kept his marble mask on.

The girls' petty fight ended with both collapsing on the mat right next to each other, leaving no winner. Kiara's eyes returned back to normal as she tried to calm her racing heart and relax her breathing. Nat had already gotten up and brought Kiara some water to help with the recovery. Through the fight, her respect for Kiara built itself back up and, in those short moments when she was vulnerable to any attacks Kiara could provide, she also forgave Kiara of any moral infractions she committed during the last mission. It also helped her ego to see that Kiara couldn't win yet, with or without her powers, and when she was normal, she still took much longer to recover.

"You know, I am sorry about yesterday. I just thought they might need my help," Kiara apologized between breaths.

"It's fine," Natasha replied. "At least I can trust to to handle yourself in a fight."

They stood and walked over to the small group of people that had conglomerated during their sparring match. Tony had his arm slung over Bruce's shoulders and seemed to be whispering something in his ear, causing a light blush to pass on to his cheeks. Steve kept his arms crossed in front of him, similar to Fury's stance, but his face reflected pride at Kiara's performance. In contrast, Fury just appeared to be angry, but no one was either surprised or bothered.

"Holy crap, that was amazing!" exclaimed Tony, slightly shaking the silent in the process.

"Good job. I'm glad to be working with you and not against you" Steve said, lightly smiling.

Fury didn't say anything. Surprise, surprise.

"I have never fought like that before. I have no clue where that came from," Kiara said, both excited and slightly afraid of her own capabilities. Apparently, she was much more dangerous than she originally thought.

Natasha hooked arms with Kiara and dragged her off to the cafeteria, followed by the observers, excepting the infamous Fury. When they arrived, Thor was scarfing down an entire box of Pop-tarts while Agent Coulson looked on with a sense of amusement and poorly-masked concern.

"How did training go?" Thor tried to say around a mouth full of chocolatey toaster pastry.

Kiara shrugged and untangled her arm from Natasha's so she could grab some food. A gnawing pain encapsulated her stomach and her only thoughts focused on assuaging that pain. She couldn't recall ever being that hungry; then again, she also couldn't recall skipping meals at the same time as she over-used her abilities.

"She's just being humble. She was a total BAMF!" The people who had seen the fight released small murmurs of agreement with Tony. If anything, Kiara's surprise badassery was the one thing everyone could agree on.

Completely oblivious to the conversation going on around her, Kiara sat down on her own table and scarfed down the assortment of food on her tray. The cafeteria was small, but packed with various shockingly not-awful foods. She guessed that this was a private eating area for the Avengers and other important personnel; there's no way someone like Fury would allow certain delicacies, like fresh fruits, to be accessible to everyone on the Helicarrier.

While everyone else dispersed to grab their own food, Bruce noticed Kiara's isolation and moved to sit with her, an action that did not go unnoticed by Matchmaker Tony. If he had food, he could've easily covered the silence by eating, but he didn't think this plan all the way through. He twiddled his thumbs as he tried to come up with a way to start a conversation and break the semi-awkward silence. Unfortunately, Bruce was just as bad at conversations as Kiara was.

"That device, the one you built in the lab last night, was successfully launched." As if suddenly remembering something, he took the remote for said device out of his lab-coat pocket and returned it to the girl sitting across from him. "How did you even come up with something like that? It was brilliant."

Kiara smiled at his praise and swallowed quickly so she could respond. "It's my gift, the reason why I'm here."

"I'm glad you're here. Its nice to have someone relatively normal to talk to," Bruce said.

"I understand. Everyone here seems so-" Kiara was cut off as Fury called her to his office. "I guess I should go. See you around."


	9. Chapter 9

Fury's office was just as bland and boring as Kiara expected it to be. The cold, harsh edges of the furniture fitted his personality perfectly. Also unsurprisingly, Fury started their meeting with an intimidation tactic. He gestured for her to sit down while he stood stoically in front of the window and refused to say anything until Kiara let out a timid greeting.

"I think we need to talk about your…capabilities. Are you fully aware of the powers you possess?" Fury interrogated Kiara. His eye scanned over her person, giving her the impression that he could read her like a book. She wouldn't be able to lie.

"I'm mostly sure I know all of my powers, but I wouldn't be surprised if more popped out of nowhere," she tried answering honestly. Nobody could know anything about mutants for sure. Hell, Captain America could suddenly have the ability to fly and she wouldn't be surprised in the slightest.

"Do you have control?"

Kiara couldn't help but to try to avoid the question. Sure, she had a fairly good grasp on most of them, but trying not to electrocute someone occasionally was a challenge, especially if she was upset.

"Mostly," she timidly answered, twiddling her thumbs in front of her. Fury's one functioning eye glared at her, seeing the truth behind her weak lie.

"Considering that was not the answer that I wanted, I'm going to have to take you off of active duty until you can control your abilities more. You will continue training, but no missions."

"But-"

"You managed to successfully combat one of my most talented agents with little training; I can't have a repeat of what happened last year."

At the mentioning of what happened last year, Kiara got lost in a pool of terrible memories. He wasn't wrong. Kiara couldn't afford to live through her mistakes again-she didn't want anyone innocent to get hurt. Fury couldn't afford to lose another agent- not after Barton.

The mistake happened the day when her father left the family. He just packed up everything he couldn't live without and moved with no warning. Her mother was absolutely devastated and had to take on an extra job just to pay for the basic necessities. Her brother didn't understand what was going on, but he still knew something had permanently changed the family. The stress wore down the entire family until Kiara cracked and committed herself to finding her father.

After doing a few illegal actions, mostly minor hacking of the family computer to track sites which her father frequently visited, she figured out the bastard moved just a few miles south to be with his mistress, who was 20 years his minor.

Understandably, Kiara was furious. Her abilities hadn't made themselves known yet, but even then her extreme anger overloaded the house and turned the power off. Not thinking clearly, she immediately called up a friend to borrow their car. No one else was home, and even if there was, she would keep her outing a secret. Her brother was finally starting to move on with the change in his life and Kiara didn't want to jeopardize her mother's fragile composure by revealing the true extent of her husband's betrayal.

Kiara had left the house at sunset and, by the time she arrived at her father's house, nightfall had set in. He moved out to the country, probably to avoid prying eyes. The only lights that illuminated Kiara's destination were the stars and the moon, which glowed bright enough to read by, if anyone were in the mood. Kiara was not in the mood.

When she knocked on the door, the whore that had ruined her family answered but, seeing Kiara at the door, she immediately shut it. Kiara could hear her shouting for the ex , her voice full of panic and contempt.

He opened the door with a look of complete indifference masking his features. He could have been picking up a package from a mailman, so blank was his face. Kiara huffed but didn't say anything. She hadn't planned this far ahead and her anger robbed her mind of forming comprehensive thought.

"Are you going to say anything, or are you just going to stand there?"

At that, Kiara exploded. _Literally._

Massive amounts of energy and electricity spanned out around her, directed at her father and the home he built. She couldn't control herself, not that she particularly wanted to. She only wanted to treat him with the same indifference he treated her and her family with.

By the end of the night, the only evidence that there had been a house in front of her were the ashes which quickly blew away in the breeze. A monster, fueled by revenge, had infected Kiara's mind and she felt no regret at looking at the barely human bodies of her father and his mistress as they laid in the ruins of the house. They survived, but were permanently disfigured due to the burns that covered every inch of their skin. Someone over 10 miles away had called the emergency services after viewing a massive explosion, which in their drunken haze appeared to be a nuclear blast. Kiara left before anyone else could arrive, so she missed the SHIELD agents that flooded the scene. Unknown to her, they already knew a mutant was to blame, and her name was at the top of their list. She arrived back home late that night and didn't tell anyone about what had occurred. To her knowledge, only the upper agents of SHIELD and she knew about it.

The next morning, she knew something had changed within her. She could _see_ technology like she never had before. Her not-so-human

abilities had taken hold and were working to change her life forever.


End file.
